Why Should Death Penalty Be Abolished?

You have heard the statement: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth that means that for every wrong done there should be a corresponding measure of justice. Based on Hammurabi’s code, it survived until these days. It is also stated in the Bible found in Matthew 5:38. From this notionwas born the capital punishment also known as death penalty that happens when a government or state executes or kills someone for the commission of a serious crime.

Death penalty around the globe:

Death penalty is still practiced in the People’s Republic of China, Japan, Iran and part of the U.S. Other countries had abolished capital punishment as Australia, Canada, Council of Europe and Mexico.

However, countries, with authoritarian/totalitarian type of government employed the penalty of death even for minor crimes as theft, illegal drugs, or for saying bad things about the government.

Death penalty in the U.S.:

Capital punishment was authorized by 37 states, the Federal Government, and the U.S. Military as April 1, 2008. The Federal government unlike individual states applies death penalty for crimes such as attempting to kill a witness, juror or court officer, espionage, federal murder, large-scale drug trafficking, treason and terrorism.

1. Death penalty is not a deterrent of crimes any less than long-term imprisonment. In fact, some states with no criminal punishment showed lesser incidence of murder and heinous crimes while 80% of executions are committed in the Southern States and they stayed top in regional murder rates.

2. Death penalty wastes financial resources of the state as executing a prisoner is more expensive than keeping him/her in prison for life. California spent more than $4 billion after reinstated death penalty in 1978.

3. Death penalty does not alleviate the pain of many family members due to the extended period prior to executions that prolongs the excruciating agony experienced by the family. Funds used for the costly process of executions could assist families set their lives back through services, counseling, restitution and crime victim hotlines.

4. Death penalty could be a wrongful execution of an innocent person that can never be rectified. Do you know that 142 men and women have been out from Death Row nationally and some were seconds away from execution?

5. Death penalty is racially discriminating as the victim’s skin plays major factors in the execution. Report from the General Accounting Office accounted that 82% of victims was influenced by the race factor. If the murdered whites were more, death sentence is more likely than those who murdered blacks.

6. Death penalty places the United States in the same line as Iraq, Iran and China as one of the major advocates and users of capital punishment. A vast majority of countries in Western Europe, North America and South America plus more than 140 nations worldwide have already abandoned capital punishment in law or in practice.

7. Death penalty is not fair as other factors as politics, quality of legal counsel and the jurisdiction where the penalty is like a lethal lottery as from more than 22,000 murders committed per year approximately 100 people or less are executed.

8. Death penalty is affected by the quality of lawyer representing the case. In most cases, the defense cannot afford to hire legal luminaries whose skills in court have gained them accolades. On the other hand, lawyers appointed to their defense by the state are not only inexperience but exhausted by so many cases they have to handle.

9. Death penalty is a sin as it is against the religious scriptures that only the Creator can end human existence. All religious groups consider capital punishment as immoral.

10. Lastly, death penalty is not the only option since life imprisonment without parole is a logical alternative as well as economical.

In conclusion, the time has come for the abolition of death penalty as it is already passed, costly, ineffective and unjust. Above all, it is against human nature!